New Delhi: India may upgrade nationwide fuel standards to eliminate cancer-causing particle emissions from vehicular exhaust by 2021, nine years behind other developing countries such as Turkey and Brazil.

The country’s pumps may start selling fuels of the same quality currently sold in Europe by April 2021, according to a draft copy of recommendations by the oil ministry’s auto fuel policy panel, obtained by Bloomberg News. The deadline is contingent on state-run refiners such as Indian Oil Corp. Ltd getting the funds needed to upgrade their facilities, according to the draft.

Most Indians now prefer more energy-efficient electronics, with over 92 per cent of 1,000 survey respondents agreeing they would buy the product even though this may be more expensive, said global market research firm GfK.

The Germany-headquartered firm revealed on Thursday the results of a survey on environmental awareness among consumers in India. They noted that over 80 per cent of Indians who participated in the survey showed positive beliefs and attitudes towards ‘green behaviour’, including supporting public transport with less carbon emissions and carrying out energy-saving renovation measures.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration talks a lot about the need to develop renewable energy around the world to curb climate change. But right now, it's trying to kill India's effort to boost its domestic solar industry.

The U.S. wants India to back off a policy that would require local sourcing for solar energy technology, and has sought World Trade Organization enforcement action. Representatives from the two nations reportedly met last week to try to settle the trade battle over India's rapidly developing solar industry, but reached no resolution.

Indian solar-power developers and their suppliers will meet with government officials to try to resolve a price dispute that risks handing ammunition to U.S. exporters complaining they face unfair trade hurdles.

The officials will meet with both sides this week, said Rajendra Nimje, head of state-run Solar Energy Corp. of India, which ran the central government’s $900 million auction of solar permits for 750 megawatts of capacity in February.

NEW DELHI: Environmentalists have been warning about growing encroachments on the Yamuna floodplains being a recipe for disaster. Now, the latest UN panel report on climate change echoes these fears, putting Delhi among three of world's mega cities that are at high risk of floods.

The other two cities facing similar risk are Tokyo and Shanghai, says the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's report — Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability — released on Monday. It says river floodplains need to be secured to be able to adapt to extreme weather and recommends setting aside buffer zones along rivers instead of "hard defenses" like channelization or dams.

NEW DELHI, March 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India's high vulnerability and exposure to climate change will slow its economic growth, impact health and development, make poverty reduction more difficult and erode food security, a new report by scientists said on Monday.

The latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stresses the risks of global warming and tries to make a stronger case for governments to adopt policy on adaptation and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"Poor women and children pay a heavy price from indoor air pollution since they spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from leaky coal and wood cookstoves," Flavia Bustreo, WHO Assistant Director-General for family, women and children's health, said in a statement last week.

Yet, a simple technology — small indoor ovens known as clean cookstoves — is poised to reverse this trend. For only about $75 apiece, these stoves, usually made of inexpensive metal or brick and mortar, reduce indoor pollution by up to 70 percent. Now the clean cookstove has its own celebrity ambassador, Julia Roberts, and its own United Nations Foundation. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves plans to help 100 million homes adopt clean cook stoves by 2020.

India’s over 121 billion strong population stands to gain almost 3.3 years of their life if all parts of the country adhere to the air quality standards laid down by the government, a new study by well-known Environment Economist Professor Michael Greenstone, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed.

Greenstone, who presented his study at the recently held annual meeting of Public Health Federation of India (PHFI), said that almost 6.28 million population in 281 districts of India is exposed to health risks due to poor adherence to pollution standards.

Air pollution is known to cause shorter and sicker lives and Delhiites never seem to have had it so bad. The Capital has been listed as the worst performer across the country with respect to the presence of alarmingly high level of Particulate Matter up to 10 micrometer in size (PM10) concentration, thus exposing the residents here to a host of diseases including respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and lung cancer.

A position paper (2014) on “Ambient Air Pollution and Public Health – A Call to Action” by non-government organisation Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) noted: “The worst performers with respect to PM10 were the Northern States including Delhi (highest PM10 concentration), Jharkhand (maximum sulphur dioxide level), West Bengal (highest nitrogen dioxide level).”

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